It seems like external batteries are a dime-a-dozen these days, but ZENDURE is one like we haven't seen before. It's crush-proof, sleek, can retain 95% of its charge after 6-months without use, and a lot more. It's badass.

As you can see, ZENDURE started its road to market on Kickstarter. The campaign ended yesterday, with a whopping $216,230 in funding – about $185k more than the original $30k goal. I guess a lot of people like the idea of being able to run their portable battery over with a car. Can't say I blame them.

Aside from being pretty rugged, ZENDURE also boasts 80 percent efficiency verses 70 percent for most other batteries. That essentially means you'll get more juice per charge than other batteries with the same mAh rating. For example, the base model ZENDURE is 9,600mAh, which should last roughly 10 percent longer than other 9,600mAh batteries. I think this actually may be some sort of witchcraft.

One of the primary features that makes ZENDURE an appealing product to me, however, is charge-through. This lets you charge your phone and ZENDURE at the same time, a feature that is missing from essentially every external battery I've ever used. That's a dealmaker in my book.

ZENDURE is available in three sizes: the 9,600mAh 200g A3, 260g 12,800mAh A4, and 320g 16,000mAh A5, which cost $49, $69, and $89 respectively. All three models are available for pre-order today and are expected to ship in December. Head to the link below to secure one, and check out the company's Kickstarter page for all the details.

Comments

The weight surprised me. They are light considering their capacity and being crush-proof.

testa

Crush proof? Is this an actual problem or is this a solution looking for a problem?

EH101

Crush proof is probably an overkill solution to the problem known as cheap. My New Trent battery basically just fell apart after a couple months and one drop.

spydie

Really? I'm reviewing one right now and I can't see anything cheap about it.. but guess what? If I drop my $700 Note 3 without a case, it will also break, does that make it a cheap phone? You can't equate something breaking when you do something stupid with "cheap".

EH101

It was a 2 foot drop from the couch to the carpet below. If that is all it takes to break the little tabs and glue that hold the casing together, anyone would call it cheap.

Be gone, troll.

Jesse Bates

The fact that crush proof isn't a feature that you need doesn't mean that it's not useful, or something that other people don't need.

Also, companies make cases for phones because they are designed to look nice and be slim, not to be rugged. This battery was designed to be tough and beautiful. The reason being, you shouldn't have to buy a case for your battery.

I run over everything I own with a car before I use it. Incidentally, I'm currently in a never-ending cycle of buying cars to run over my cars to run over my cars to run over my cars to run over my help me cars to run over my I can't get out cars to run over my...

runderekrun

Someone reboot him.

Herman

Have you tried turning him off and on again?

John Smith

My pants are so tight, they crush anything that in the pockets.

Wondering person

How does someone start a kickstarter for 30k if they record this in a room with like 10 imac's.

I blame misconception for how businesses work in this. For starters, there's exactly zero evidence that the iMacs pictures are owned by the Zendure guys (I have been in many videos that have things behind me I don't actually own. It's movie magic.)

However, even if they were owned, what's the implication here? "You should sell your iMacs to pay for your Kickstarter?" It sure seems like they need those to, you know, do work. Even if selling them would be enough (I would be shocked if you could get $30k for ten used iMacs). Or is the implication that if they can afford that, then they must surely have a ton of other money laying around that's not being used? That seems pretty silly. I own a car. Does that mean I inherently have $10,000 laying around somewhere? Because I can't find it.

More than anything, though, businesses don't just get funded by whatever people have in their pockets. Many founders will sometimes invest their own money, but that doesn't mean they just have it. Plus, if you look at the pledge perks, this (and many other KS's) offer actual products in exchange for money. If they raise $30k by exchanging products for money, how is that not exactly what a business is?

I understand the risks and criticisms of Kickstarter (you can't guarantee products will arrive, there's room for abuse...all valid). But claiming that a person being in the vicinity of expensive computers magically means that they don't ever need to use any tools to promote their business is just an asinine and stupid conclusion to draw.

spydie

Expensive computers? Have you even priced imacs lately? If you equip a windows PC with the exact same specs as an apple computer, they cost about the same. I know... I own 3 of each, and I special order them to my specs. iMacs aren't the ferrari of computers. They are the BMW and Windows computers are the Elio (eliomotors.com)! LOL No, actually they are the Yugo! ha ha

I backed this project, and I'm interested to see how well they actually perform. As a backer, I will get some perks (a lamp and a case) which should help ease the pain if the battery is no better than cheaper options, but the things that drew me in were (a) the ability to charge while charging, and (b) the relatively light weight for the capacity. If it works as advertised, I'll buy more.

I'm curious how you can charge your phone while at the same time charge the charger. Many modern phones use 2 amp chargers, if you charge your charger with anything lower than that then it won't charge the charger at all.

OSagnostic

I charge my phone (Nexus 4) from a cheap car phone charger, it takes much longer to charge than official mains charger.

I have charged various phones (and seen a colleague charge there GS2) from a laptop USB port. It takes much longer than it would from a dedicated charger.

So in my admittedly very limited experience i have not seen a phone that will not charge from a low current source.

spydie

and you can get the New Trent waterproof 12,000 mah version right now on Amazon for $54.95 PRIME shipping and it also can be charged while charging (is that a big deal?) and you don't have to wait until December. I'm reviewing one for New Trent (Idealpoint) right now and it's fantastic.

atlouiedog

Charging while being charged is important to anyone who travels and has to deal with a limited number of outlets and adapting power.

h4rr4r

Or you can spend $10 and get one of those boxes that takes 4 AA rechargeables.
I just don't understand buying a one use device like this that has a battery you can't replace when it eventually dies.

Jesse Bates

Ultimately, you would spend hundreds more on AA batteries than you would spend on the battery pack.

h4rr4r

What part of rechargeables did you not understand?
Go price AA eneloops. Even with a charger you are only going to spend $20 on AAs for 1500 cycles. Which is longer than this battery pack will last.

James Sarino

I'm curious about charging speed. Maybe I missed it in their Kickstarter page, but I want something that can charge relatively quickly.

David Hart

This is cool.. but I'm not going to purchase an extended battery just because I can run it over.

I once had a 5v PC fan running off of an external battery while camping, It was awesome for keeping the bugs away from my face while sleeping. I used it probably twice (overnight) and it fried the battery. It was a New Trent 11,000mAh.

I know the battery died doing something it was't really supposed to do, but I think I'd prefer better electrical protection, over physical protection.

Besides, I still think I could run over that newtrent battery with my Jeep, and it would still be ok.